John H. Pearson

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

John H. Pearson serves as Point Park University's provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs and dean of faculty. He is a professor of English in the Department of Literary Arts.

Pearson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Eckerd College and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in English from Boston University.

Before his appointment as provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs in June of 2016, Pearson had a long career at Stetson University in Deland, Fla. At Stetson, Pearson served as associate vice president for academic affairs from 2013 until joining Point Park University. Other positions held by Pearson at Stetson University include director of the general studies program from 2001 to 2011 and chair of the Department of English from 1996 to 2001 and from 2012 to 2013, in addition to being a tenured professor of English.

Selected Publications

Books

The Prefaces of Henry James: Framing the Modern Reader (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). Reissued in paperback 2005.

Articles and Chapters in Books

"Henry James, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and the Fashioning of Southern Identity." In Witness to Reconstruction: Essays on Constance Fenimore Woolson and the South. Ed. Kathleen Diffley. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2011.

"The Art of Self Creation: Henry James in the New York Edition Prefaces." In Fashioning the Self: Essays on Modern Novelists. Ed. Marysa DeMoor, Ed. (London: Palgrave P, 2004).

"Repetition and Subversion in Henry James's The Turn of the Screw." In New Casebooks: The Turn of the Screw and What Maisie Knew.Ed. Neil Cornwell and Maggie Malone. London: Macmillan P; Boston: St. Martin's P; 1998.

James H. Thomas

Associate Provost

James Thomas serves as Point Park University's associate provost. He brings approximately 30 years of higher education experience to Point Park University. Thomas holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Dickinson College, a Master of Education in counseling from the University of Missouri, and an Ed.D. in higher education leadership from West Virginia University.

Thomas has served in many different capacities over the years including chairperson, program director, and associate professor of leadership studies at Geneva College, vice president for academic services at Community College of Beaver County, interim assistant vice president for academic services at West Virginia State University, and dean of student development at Wheeling Jesuit College in West Virginia. Before his appointment as associate provost in 2011, Thomas served as the assistant dean in the School of Arts and Sciences since 2008.

Jonas Prida

Assistant Provost

Jonas Prida serves as Point Park University's Assistant Provost for Curriculum, Assessment, and Accreditation. Prida holds a Ph.D in English from Tulane University and received an M.A. in English from the University of Maine, Orono.

Prior to joining Point Park, Prida spent eight years at the College of St. Joseph in Rutland, Vermont. Prida acted in several faculty and administrative capacities during his time there, most recently serving as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty.

Articles and Chapters in Books

"Weird Modernism: Literary Modernism in the First Decade of Weird Tales." The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror. Ed. Justin Everett and Jeffrey Shanks. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Press, 2015).

Emily Conrad

Director of Academic Affairs

Emily Conrad is responsible to the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs for the management of academic administration responsibilities in Academic Affairs. She is responsible for providing support to strategic teams and committees within the University; oversight of faculty processes (promotion and tenure, sabbatical, etc.); preparation of reports to support Academic Affairs; interpreting, monitoring and analyzing policies and procedures within Academic Affairs; and administering budgets and coordinating academic and staff personnel matters within Academic Affairs.

Prior to her current role in the Office of Provost, Conrad was the Director of Academic Administration in the Rowland School of Business. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration and received a M.B.A. from the University of New Orleans.